[Pragmatism's] only test of probable truth is what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life… — William James Copy Share Image
Truth is one species of good, and not, as is usually supposed, a category distinct from good, and co-ordinate with it — William James Copy Share Image
The most ancient parts of truth . . . also once were plastic. They also were called true for human reasons. They… — William James Copy Share Image
Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way — William James Copy Share Image
I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess… — William James Copy Share Image
The bottom of being is left logically opaque to us, a datum in the strict sense of the word, something we simply… — William James Copy Share Image
There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood bu those who hear it. — William James Copy Share Image
Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true… — William James Copy Share Image
Our ideas must agree with realities, be such realities concrete or abstract — William James Copy Share Image
In this real world of sweat and dirt, it seems to me that when a view of things is 'noble,' that ought… — William James Copy Share Image
Owing to the fact that all experience is a process, no point of view can ever be the last one — William James Copy Share Image
'What would be better for us to believe!' This sounds very like a definition of truth — William James Copy Share Image
There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough. — William James Copy Share Image
... A rule of thinking which would absolutely prevent me from acknowledging certain kinds of truth if those ... truths were really… — William James Copy Share Image
“An outree explanation, violating all our preconceptions, would never pass for a true account of a novelty. We should scratch round industriously… — William James Copy Share Image
Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul None is more gladdening or fruitful than to know You can regenerate and… — William James Copy Share Image
There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and… — William James Copy Share Image
True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those that we cannot. That is the… — William James Copy Share Image
Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance… — William James Copy Share Image
“In truths dependent on our personal action, then, faith based on desire is certainly a lawful and possibly an indispensable thing.” — William James Copy Share Image
Truth, as any dictionary will tell you, is a property of certain of our ideas. It means their agreement, as falsity means… — William James Copy Share Image
Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation. — William James Copy Share Image
The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths. — William James Copy Share Image
To know an object is to lead to it through a context which the world provides — William James Copy Share Image
Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world. — William James Copy Share Image
We are all potentially such sick men. The sanest and best of us are of one clay with lunatics and prison-inmates. And whenever we… — William James Copy Share Image
In the dim background of our mind we know meanwhile what we ought to be doing: getting up, dressing ourselves, answering the person who… — William James Copy Share Image
“Our minds thus grow in spots; and like grease-spots, the spots spread. But we let them spread as little as possible: we keep unaltered… — William James Copy Share Image
Woe to him whose beliefs play fast and loose with the order which realities follow in his experience; they will lead him nowhere or… — William James Copy Share Image
We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be. — William James Copy Share Image
Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. — William James Copy Share Image
Most people, probably, are in doubt about certain matters ascribed to their past. They may have seen them, may have said them, done them,… — William James Copy Share Image
“How soon, indeed, are human things forgotten! As we meet here this morning, the Southern sun is shining on their place of burial, and… — William James Copy Share Image
![“[Pragmatism's] only test of probable truth is what works best…” quote by William James](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/072/william-james-228_art-of-life_pragmatism-s-only-test-of-probable-truth_942773.jpg)
